


Penny's Arcade

by Twilightdusk



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-14 00:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21006665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilightdusk/pseuds/Twilightdusk
Summary: In which Penny is introduced to the concept of video games. Relationship is only a minor element.





	Penny's Arcade

"Salutations Team RWBY!" Penny's cheerful voice rang out into the air as she walked into the team’s dorm room, smiling as she sees Ruby and Yang sitting in the middle of the room, intently holding their scrolls and pressing on them as they focus on an image projected on the side of the room. Neither of the girls seemed to notice Penny, so she sat down similarly behind them, watching the screen.

Two ninja-looking characters, one dressed in red and the other in yellow, were fighting on the screen, jumping, punching, and kicking at each other as aura bars at the top of the screen gradually depleted. Eventually one of the bars emptied out and the red-clad ninja falls to the ground on its back. This moment is accompanied by Yang pumping her fist into the air and letting out a cheer while Ruby groans out and drops her face into her hands. “Got you sis, that’s three~” “Uugh, best of seven?” “Haha, like it’d matter~”

Penny hummed gently, tilting her head as she watches the screen, smiling and clapping her hands together as she came to her conclusion “Oh I understand, the two of you were controlling those fighters on screen, how interesting.” 

The sudden voice made the two sisters jump and turn around, suddenly noticing the ginger haired girl “P-Penny!? When did you get in here?” Ruby spoke up as both of them backed away from her a bit to create some space. The robotic girl just smiled happily at them, not seeing anything wrong in her approach. “I announced my arrival as I entered, but the two of you seemed focused on that odd broadcast. What is that anyway?” The two of them glanced at each other before Yang spoke up “Uuh, Super Ninja Fighters 2?” Penny tilted her head at that name, running it through her memory before shaking her head “I do not believe I have ever heard of that, can you tell me more?” 

Yang looked back to Ruby again with a mix of confusion and apology as she exaggeratedly stretched her arms “Aah, well, look at the time there, I should uh, go meet up with Nora to do...things, Ruby you’re used to explaining things to her right? Have fun~” Ruby blinked and glared at Yang as she realized what she was doing “H-hey wait!” But by the time she called out the door was already closed, leaving her alone with a still smiling Penny.

Ruby let out a sigh before forcing a smile on her face. It’s not that she minded spending time with Penny, but her lines of questioning can get...tedious. “W-well, it’s a new fighting game that came out the other day, Yang and I have been playing it like, non-stop for the past few days, I don’t get how she gets so much better than me at these though, I bet she’s practicing in secret somehow.” Ruby crosses her arms in annoyance as Penny considers those words and then speaks again. “I am not sure I know what a ‘fighting game’ is, can you explain?” 

Ruby blinked again before reaching to scratch the back of her head as she considered how to explain. “Er well, it’s a type of video game where each player takes control of a fighter and well, fight, like you saw us doing.” Ruby looks at Penny with a nervous expression as she takes a moment to think again. “Penny...you er, you _do_ know what a video game is, right?”

Ruby’s expression drops into disbelief as Penny shakes her head “I do not. Can you explain it to me Ruby?” Ruby just stares at Penny for a few moments as she holds that usual smile of hers. Not that she expected the robot girl to suddenly develop a sense of sarcasm, but that expression gave no indication that her words were anything but the truth.

“OK, let me think about how to approach this…” Ruby hums to herself and twiddles her fingers together in thought, eventually looking back to Penny’s patient, waiting smile. “Have you seen...TV shows before Penny?” Ruby’s shoulders sank as Penny took a moment to consider again. “I have a variety of instructional videos saved to my memory, is that what you are referring to?” “Er, not quite...books?” “I also have various instructional manuals saved!”

Ruby gives a defeated sigh as she massages her forehead. “Penny...is there anything you do just for fun normally?” The android girl tilts her head in thought once again. “Fun, by that you are referring to activities performed primarily for enjoyment as opposed to any constructive benefit? That being the case, there is! I find it very much fun to come visit you here Ruby.” 

Ruby feels her cheeks start to turn red as she clears her throat “W-well, video games are something people do for fun, maybe it would be easier if you just tried a round with me?” Penny claps her hands together happily “I would love to! How do we begin?” “Well first, just hold out your scroll towards the game.” Penny nods and reaches into her pocket to bring out the portable computer, hers is seldom used compared to most since she has many of its functions built into herself, but sometimes it’s useful to have the device itself, especially more recently as she’s been walking around in public like a normal girl.

Penny unfolded her scroll and held it out towards the screen, causing both to make a chiming noise. “New challenger! Select your fighter!” Penny stared at her scroll and the screen with an analytical expression as virtual buttons formed for her to press, selecting between various characters (most of which were just differently colored ninja) and hitting confirm to pick one. Ruby smiled at her and patted a spot of the floor, prompting Penny to mimic her sitting position. “So you use these buttons to move your character around, and these other ones to…”

* * *

Ruby stared at the screen with intense focus, biting her lip in concentration as her fingers practically slammed into the buttons on her scroll’s screen with every move, desperately fending off the attacks of Penny, who sat next to her with her usual happy smile, fingers moving quickly and precisely over the controls until the red-clad ninja on the screen falls backward onto the ground. “Match over: Forest Ninja Wins!” “Sensational~ I believe that makes our score seventeen wins to three: Shall we extend our fun to a best of thirty-five?” 

Ruby lets out a groan and falls backwards onto her back, eyes closed and scroll resting on her stomach “Penny, not that I’m not enjoying this but we’ve been playing this for an hour, don’t you want to do something else?” Ruby sighed in defeat, she’d won her first match against Penny, and managed to surprise her twice with her character’s special moves, but aside from that Penny picked up on the game faster than anyone she’d ever seen and proceeded to mop the floor with her. The robotic girl shook her head with that happy smile on her face “I am having fun playing video games with my Best Friend Ruby, why would I want to do something else?” Ruby chuckles and closes her eyes for a moment “Well, we played _ a _video game anyway.”

When Ruby opened her eyes again Penny’s face was hovering over hers, her eyes wide mouth open slightly in surprise “Are there more video games we can play Ruby?” Ruby blinks and slowly pushes herself backwards along the ground to give herself some space as she sits up “Er well, yea of course. We don’t have that many in here but I think there’s an arcade down in Vale-” “Sensational! We should go together at once to play more video games together Ruby!” “Wha-? H-Hey, wait a minute, at least let me grab a bag or something!” Ruby protested as Penny took hold of her arm and started dragging her out of the room towards Beacon’s dock to catch the next shuttle to Vale. 

* * *

Penny’s eyes seemed to shine brighter in wonder as the pair entered the Dayle & Hunter’s Arcade, Ruby smiled at her as she looked around at all the flashing lights and high pitched sounds competing for attention. Penny recognized many of the machines in the complex as the ‘arcade cabinets’ Ruby described to her and showed her on her scroll, but other stations had plastic replica weapons, vehicles, and other unusual setups she wasn’t quite sure how to describe.

“Now remember Penny, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and lose track of where you are in here, so the key is to stay calm, stay together, and oh my dust they have Mansion of Mummies 5!” Before she could finish her prepared speech, Ruby dashed off in a trail of rose petals towards a machine in a corner of the building with two plastic replica pistols attached to it. Penny caught up to her in enough time to watch her scan her scroll over a panel and strike a pose with the pistol as she started ‘firing’ it at the screen. Penny tilted her head, not seeing anything come out of the gun itself, but looking at the screen there were flashes of light where Ruby pointed as bizarre Grimm-like monsters wrapped in bandages slowly walked towards the screen, the flashes of light warding them off and destroying them.

Penny looked down at the machine itself, a pair of smaller screens on it showed Ruby’s picture under “Player One” on one screen, and the other one read “Second Player Ready! 2 Credits to Play!” The robot girl curiously scanned her scroll like Ruby did, and pressed a button to accept the transaction as some Lien was exchanged for these ‘credits’ and her picture showed up to start playing the game. copying Ruby, she picked up the replica gun to start fighting off the game’s monsters.

“Get the ones on the left! The leeeeft!” Ruby completely let the excitement of the game take over as she fired wildly at the enemies on screen, Penny giggled at her friend’s behavior, watching her expressions for a moment before she took a fighting stance with the replica pistol and focused on the game “I am combat ready!” Penny listened to Ruby’s instructions as the pair progressed through the inexplicably mummy-infested mansion, If not for the absurdity of the scenario it could pass as some sort of training simulation, Penny kept that thought in mind as they progressed through the game’s stages. 

Eventually the pair got hit too much against some kind of mummy-dragon boss, causing Ruby to dramatically fall forward against the cabinet. “Curse you hydra-mummy! I’ll get my revenge next time!” Penny giggled again at the sight, especially as Ruby immediately perked up at something. Looking back toward the screen, it was asking for them to enter a short name. “Why is it asking for a name Ruby?” Ruby blinked and looked to Penny in confusion before remembering why they were here in the first place and putting on a smile “Well, with arcade games like this, it keeps track of your score, and if you do well enough you get to put your name on it, like this~” Ruby took aim at the letters and entered “RBY,” prompting the game to show a list of names and scores next to them, Ruby’s placing in 6th. 

“You can pick anything you want for the name, you can try to use your own name or initials or just something that means a lot to you. If you use the same one on different games, people can kind of recognize you all around.” Penny nodded her head, clapping her hands together again “Sensational, I hope I get to put a name somewhere.” Ruby just smiled at that “Penny, if you’re half as good at anything here as you were at Ninja Fighter, you’ll put in your name for sure. Let’s go try one of those racing games next!” 

* * *

The pair smiled and laughed as they sat down on a bench after playing another game. “I can’t believe you landed that parachute right in the center, I’ve never seen that happen before!” “It was a simple matter of calculating the distance each obstacle would alter the path, I made the necessary observations when you tried Ruby, you were quite impressive yourself.” “Aw shucks~” 

Ruby giggled more until a buzzing in her pocket interrupted her thoughts. She frowned as she opened her scroll and checked a message. “Oh shoot, I forgot I promised to meet up with Weiss today.” She sighed and lowered her head before turning to Penny with a smile, “I need to start heading back, I had a lot of fun today though, we should hang out here again sometime.” Penny frowned herself for a moment before returning to her usual smile and nodded her head “I too had a lot of fun Ruby, thank you for showing me all of these video games. I think I will stay for a while and try a few more.” Ruby nodded her head and chuckled “Alright, just don’t overdo it OK? The arcade’s not going anywhere after all.” 

Penny nodded once more and waved goodbye to Ruby before turning back to the room full of arcade cabinets. “Now then, which video game should I try next.” 

* * *

Ruby groaned as she finally returned to her dorm room alongside Weiss, carrying several heavy textbooks in her bag. “Since when do we have to study on weekends again?” “Since you kept rushing back to the room to play that silly game instead of studying after classes, just be grateful I took the time to catch you up, Oobleck’s due to give us a pop quiz any class now.” Ruby just groaned again and climbed up into her bed before dramatically flopping face-first onto her pillow. A giggle from across the room alerted her to Yang’s presence, and led to a pillow flying across the room.

“Hey come on sis, I’m allowed to make fun of you for that.” Weiss rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath “You might if you weren’t even worse than her at studying.” Fortunately Yang was too focused on Ruby to notice and tossed the pillow back to her. “So how’d things go with Penny earlier?” Ruby blushed a bit at that and chuckled to herself “Well, I’m not sure why I thought I’d beat a robot at a fighting game, but she had a lot of fun playing that, and then we went off to the arcade for a bit.”

“Oh you were down there huh? Catch any sight of the new arcade wiz in town?” Ruby blinked curiously and sat up on her bed “Huh, arcade Wiz?” “Yea, people started talking about them a few hours ago, check it out.” Yang pressed a few buttons on her scroll and Ruby’s buzzed with a message. She pulled out the scroll and started reading the article as Yang continued, “Someone just came out of nowhere and started putting up top scores on practically all of the games, crazy thing is they didn’t stay at any game long enough for anyone to notice them putting the name in, think someone around for the Vytal festival is really into games or something?”

Ruby chuckled nervously and nodded her head “Y-yea, that must be it. Shame we didn’t get to see them. Oh well time for bed.” “Whaat? You’re not that tired already are you sis?” Despite the teasing Ruby pulled the blanket over herself and remained still, blushing furiously and staring at her scroll as she sincerely hoped it wasn’t the person who she thought it was listing “P❤️R” as the high score on all those arcade games.


End file.
